Want Money, Will Kill
by rumyas
Summary: Gary saves a nine-year old from a fire and uncovers a plot to murder her. (this is my very first fanfic, please read and review!)


Want Money, Will Kill.

_His name is Gary Hobson. He gets tomorrow's newspaper today. He doesn't know why, he doesn't know how. All he knows is that when the Early Edition hits his front door, he has 24 hours to set things right._

The woman stood in the rain with tears pouring down her face, in front of the cemetery. She wished that she could go in. But she knew she could not, she dare not. Especially not now, when every one was still there. An hour later she was still standing there, not noticing the people in black slowly walking past her. Her eyes were only on the old man who walked slowly towards her, being supported by his manager. Till he had seen her, his expression had been one of grief, but that had changed to fury the moment he sighted her. With a sudden surge of strength, the old man pushed away the younger one and approached the woman. She had barely opened her mouth to say something but the old man beat her to it. "You have no right to be here, do you understand? I will not tolerate you like my son did." For a second his eyes flickered to the freshly buried grave before they swung back to rest on her once more. "You killed him, my Fredrick, and you are going to pay for it." With these parting words, he turned away from her to the younger man, almost collapsing on his shoulder. It seemed as if this exchange had taken more out of him than he had thought. He was gently escorted away, without hearing the woman's softly spoken words, " But I didn't..."

PART I:

Gary Hobson turned over in his bed to get more comfortable when a small noise disturbed him. A noise that was quite familiar. He turned to check the time, 6.15 am. With a groan, he pulled his pillow over his head in an attempt to block out the meowing of a cat outside his door. But his attempts were futile. Finally grumbling, Gary struggled to get out of his tangled sheets and crossed over to his front door. As he opened it, he reprimanded the orange cat sitting outside; "You do realize that you are 15 minutes early today don't you?" The cat, taking no notice of his ramblings, stalked past him into the house. Gary glared at the cat and then stooped to pick up the newspaper lying on the ground. He turned to go back inside when a sheet of the paper fell out of his hands and landed on the floor. He bent to pick it up when a headline on the front page caught his eye.

'NINE YEAR OLD HEIRESS DIES IN FIRE AT ABANDONED WAREHOUSE,' it said. Jolted into wakefulness, Gary quickly read the article. The one thing that leapt out at him was the time of the explosion, 6.45 am. With a shock Gary realized that he had only 25 minutes to save the girl. He hurriedly dressed and rushed down the stairs to the office, stopping only to grab his wallet and the keys to the McGinty's van. He had already put the keys in the lock before he noticed that one of the back tires was flat. Cursing under his breath, he put the keys back in his pocket and started running.

It was almost 6.40 am and Gary could just make out the faint outline of the building in the distance. When he finally reached it, he ran inside, forcing open a door that made a frightful noise as it was pushed open. He made straight for the back, for that was where the body was to be found. He called out the girl's name, Julianna, hoping she would hear him and respond, although he doubted it. The paper had said that the girl had run away from her home following the recent loss of her father and abusive mother and ended up at the warehouse on that unfortunate day. So she would probably try to hide from anyone who was looking for her. Suddenly Gary thought that he could smell gasoline. Before he could do anything further though, an explosion rocked the building. The ground shuddered, and the roof started to cave in. Within seconds, the entire area around Gary was on fire. Somehow, Gary forced his way past some part of the roof which had collapsed, tears streaming from his stinging eyes due to the smoke that had began to swirl around him. Behind all the flames and fumes, he could just make out a prone body lying on the ground. He lunged for it, just as the roof buckled behind him, blocking his means of escape. His leap sent him sprawling on the ground. He tried to roll away to avoid a falling beam, but at the same time taking him a little bit further away from the girl. He started coughing with all the smoke and dust around him. But the only thing Gary could think of right then was getting to the girl lying there on the floor. Praying the she wasn't too badly hurt, Gary gingerly turned her over, breathing a sigh of relief when all he found were few small cuts and bruises on her face and hands. But when he felt for her pulse, it was very weak. He then noticed that one of her legs was trapped under some debris. After some struggle, he was finally able to pull her leg out. By now there were flames everywhere. He picked her up in his arms and looked around for some way to get out of there. But all he could see were piles of rubble and flames everywhere. Finally he spotted a window in a corner. When he tried to open it, he found that it was jammed tight, probably from years of grime and grease. Realizing that was his only way out, he set the girl down and quickly took off his coat, wrapping it around her. Once more he picked her up, and taking a deep breath, he ran towards the window. He shut his eyes as he crashed through the glass, landing on the grass outside, rolling on his side.

Immediately the people who had gathered around the building when the explosion had occurred surrounded him. Gary could hear the sirens of fire engines in the background, and someone carefully took the girl from his hands and checked her for injuries. As he tried to get his bearings, a fireman came running up to him and helped him up. Only when he grasped Gary's right arm was Gary aware of the piece of glass that was embedded in his arm. Pain shot up his arm and he fell back, clutching it. The fireman was telling him something about a hospital, but nothing registered in Gary's head. The ground spun underneath his feet and he was not even aware of collapsing on the ground as everything went black. As he was carried to the waiting ambulance, the second fireman, who was carrying the still unconscious girl, picked up Gary's newspaper from where he had landed, putting out the small flame, which licked at one corner by slapping it against the grass.

Much later in the day, Gary had finally convinced the doctor to let him go home, promising him that he would 'take good care of his hand'. He had been taken to the hospital after he had passed out, from smoke inhalation, he was told. The doctor had wanted to keep him longer under observation but Gary had protested. Suddenly he remembered his paper. He had been about to approach a nurse to enquire about his paper when something went flying past his feet. He picked it up and realized that it was a part of his paper. Then he discovered the rest of it lying on a table nearby, fluttering in the wind. As he picked it up, he noticed that on of the edges was a little burnt. He didn't know how it came to be there but it was pure luck.

He decided to check on the girl he had saved just before leaving. After getting instructions from a nurse as to where he could find her, Gary pocketed his antibiotics prescription and went to see how she was doing. When he reached the room, he could hear angry voices. Through the open door he could see an elderly man was shouting at a woman in the corner of the room. The girl appeared to be asleep on the bed and didn't notice any of the commotion around her. Gary couldn't make out what was being said but he had seen enough to realize that it was a personal argument. But before he could move away, the old man turned to leave, his parting words loud and clear for every one to hear. "I am going to get custody of my grand-daughter! You are not fit to be her mother. There is no way I am going to let her live with you after this." Outside he saw Gary and moved towards him. "Are you the man who saved her?" he asked, noticing Gary's bandages. When he received a reply in the affirmative, he shook a firm hand with Gary and thanked him profusely. He asked Gary's name and even offered some kind of compensation for what he had done. But Gary politely refused. When the old man, who introduced himself as Stephen Kingston, had finally left after thanking Gary once more, the woman in the room came out and approached Gary. She told him that she was Julianna's mother, Sophia. She was almost in tears as she thanked Gary over and over again for saving her daughter's life. But she was totally clueless as to how Julianna had ended up in the warehouse in the first place. According to her grandfather, she informed Gary, Julianna must have run away from home. But Sophia was sure Julianna had done no such thing, or so she said.

Gary finally reached McGinty's sometime around midday. The minute he entered his office, Marissa looked up and asked, "Gary, is that you?" Before he could reply, she fired him with questions, "Where have you been? I have been so worried! Was it the paper? Are you all right?" Suddenly she seemed to realize what she was doing and stopped. She got up and fetched Gary some water, he was probably thirsty and maybe hungry, she thought. Slowly Gary sat down on a chair that he pulled up next to her and recounted the events of his morning. She stood up when he was finished and came over to him, gently running her hand over his forehead, feeling the bandage there. Gary was grateful that she couldn't see the larger bandage on his arm. Even now when he thought of it, his arm ached. Thankfully the paper didn't have much for him to do after that morning. Marissa asked him the name of the girl he had saved. That was when Gary remembered the scene he had witnessed in the hospital. He told Marissa about it and then said; "I think I read something about Stephen Kingston in the papers recently." Then he remembered where; his oldest son, Fredrick had recently died of drunk driving. Of course, he remembered that time all too well. It had been in his paper. But he had been unable to do anything about it, because the first day all there had been in his paper was his name in the obituary section. Only the next day had some reporter uncovered what the police had been trying to keep under wraps, that Fredrick Kingston had been heavily drunk when he was driving home and had had an accident with another car, a family of four. Thankfully, they had all survived, except the father who suffered a broken bone. But Fredrick had been killed on impact. Gary had been upset for a few days, that he had not known about it, that he had not saved him. He had placed the blame on himself for no reason, until Marissa had convinced him that it was not his fault, that he hadn't known about it, couldn't have done anything about it. Marissa too was remembering the same incident. She had realized before Gary who the girl was, as soon as she had heard her name, but had kept it to herself, not wanting Gary to relive his anguish. But by the silence she knew that he had remembered.

Gary tried to rid himself of his black thoughts. But a thought persisted in his mind, one that he voiced to Marissa. "Do you think that her father's death could have been the cause?" "The cause of what?" Asked a confused Marissa, not following Gary's line of thinking. "Well, Fredrick was Julianna's father. Maybe her grandfather was right about her running away from home." Gary explained. "I've always heard that Sophia Kingston was the cause of the divorce and that when she won custody for Julianna over Fredrick, he lost it. It was all over the papers and magazines. That's why he was drunk the other night. She refused to even let him see his child and that was what drove him to the edge. Any child would try to run away from home when her whole family is falling apart, don't you think?" Wearily Gary stood up and made for his loft. "I think I'll just go take a nap or something. Thanks for listening. And ... I _am_ fine, just a bit tired." He had said before Marissa had even asked him. He had seen her rising from her seat. He was glad that there was nothing to do later on in the day. He really needed some rest. He was going to have his medicine and go to blissful sleep.

Gary slept soundly for three hours when out of the blue the cat jumped up on the bed and onto Gary's stomach. He tried to push it off but could not. He opened his eyes slowly and tried to lift the cat off him but it wouldn't budge. Then he noticed the paper lying next to him on the bed. He clearly remembered that he had left it on his couch not on his bed. Now he knew that the cat had been trying to wake him up. This time when he tried to shove it off, it jumped off the bed and sat down near it, as if waiting for Gary to read the paper.

Gary abruptly shot up. He sat up on the bed and quickly read the new headline on the front page. Just then Marissa had come up to the loft to see if he was awake just in time to hear his groan. She hurried inside towards him and asked, concern evident in her voice, "What is it Gary? What happened?" He told her about the new headline in the paper. "This wasn't there before!" he exclaimed. The headlines screamed out at him. 'WOMAN MURDERS KINGSTON HEIR'. Quickly Gary read out parts of the article to her. "It says here that Sophia Kingston murdered her own daughter, heir to the Kingston fortune after which she killed herself yesterday evening at their home in downtown Chicago. It is presumed that she was mentally unstable which was the cause of such behavior. She refused to let her daughter visit her father or his family after the break-up of her marriage. She is suspected to be the cause for her 9-year old daughter to run away from their home early this morning to an abandoned warehouse where she narrowly escaped death. The bodies were discovered in their home yesterday evening at 6.00 pm by the renowned business tycoon, Stephen Kingston when he had gone to visit his granddaughter." He couldn't believe what he was reading. "This wasn't there before because Julianna was going to be killed in the fire... But I met Sophia in the hospital and she didn't seem to be such a woman who would murder her own child, could she?"

PART II:

Gregory Banks sat in his chair in his office, looking out at the magnificent view of Lake Michigan. Only he wasn't seeing that. In his mind he replayed his meeting with his boss just a few minutes ago. A frown creased his face. Nothing was going according to his plan. Now Stephen wanted him to call the family lawyer to start proceedings against Sophia to get custody of Julianna. Damn!! If only that man hadn't interfered, then today mornings happenings would have been perfect. Now he would have to make new plans. He cursed under his breath again. Turning his chair around, he picked up his phone and dialed a number. As soon as it was picked up he said, "It's me. Yes. I know, I know. He wants to go to court. We will meet at the usual place in one hour." With that he hung up and thoughtfully rested his head on his hands as he contemplated his new plan. He would take his revenge on Stephen Kingston. Why, he had worked like a dog all these years for him and what did he get in return, nothing but a pat on the back and a small raise. He deserved a promotion. He knew he did. He should have been promoted to vice-president after Fredrick had died. After all he was the one who had been handling everything after that. After all that effort he had put into breaking up Fredrick's marriage, he was sure that Stephen would never want to look at Sophia or her daughter ever again. But he now wanted to get custody of the girl! He had to take measures to stop that. Or else he would never get his hands on the Kingston fortune; it would all probably go into that brat's hands. He knew what he had to do to get what he wanted. 'Sorry Sophia,' he told her in his head. 'But there can be no other way.'

Gary had immediately rushed to get back to the hospital as soon as he had read the paper. After all just around 3 hours ago he had seen both Sophia and her daughter there. And he didn't think that they would have let Julianna go home so soon. He had heard that she had suffered severe smoke inhalation and that her leg was broken and Sophia had been telling a nurse that she was going home to pick up some clothes for them both. But it took Gary almost 1-½ hours to get to the hospital, because of a traffic jam. When he got to the hospital, Gary went straight to Julianna's room. But to his surprise, there was no one there. When he approached a nurse to find out whether she had been shifted else where, she was as surprised as him to find Julianna not in her room. Obviously flustered, she hurried off to find out if she had been taken for an X-Ray or any other test somewhere. Even as she left an old man sitting on the bench outside the room commented, "She won't be finding anything." Gary turned to him in surprise and asked him why he had said that. The old man replied, "Because the woman who came and took her wasn't any nurse. Came with a wheel chair and took her away. Said she was the mother... was a brunette I think." The first thought that came to Gary's mind was that Sophia had dark brown hair.

Just then Gary heard the nurse who had gone earlier coming towards him. By the time she, along with a doctor had rounded the corridor, Gary was gone. He was running downs the stairs as fast as he could without jerking his arm too much. He was sure that Julianna had been taken away without anybody's knowledge. If had had stuck around they would have insisted on questioning him, and he did not have any time for that. It hadn't been mentioned anywhere in the paper that Sophia had also taken her daughter secretly from the hospital. If she wasn't here, then she must be at home or at least on the way there, for that was where the bodies were going to be found. Gary checked his watch, he had only 3 hours left before the dead bodies were found and he had no idea how long they had been dead before Stephen found them. Outside the hospital, he caught the first cab that he could find, checking the paper once before giving the address. It was almost an hour later that he reached the house. He went towards the back and tried the door, which was unlocked and cautiously entered, fully expecting to meet an armed Sophia, at the very least. But the scene he saw was not at all what he had expected.

PART III

There was a man holding a revolver and facing Sophia. Behind her he could see through a half-open door, through which he could see movement. Obviously there was someone else there other than these two. Neither Sophia nor the man seemed to have noticed his entry. Gary stood there, shell-shocked when he heard what the man was saying. "...So you see why I have to kill both of you. I needn't have if that guy hadn't saved precious Julie from the warehouse this morning. So now Sophia is going to go mad and kill her daughter. She gets overcome by grief and the kills herself by putting a bullet through her head." Seeing Sophia's look of shock and horror he laughed, a frightening, evil laugh. "You didn't guess that it was me? I'm not surprised. You weren't supposed to. Now because of some stranger, all my plans have been ruined. If he had been just a few minutes late, there would have been no way to save her. I stole her from here in the night, drugged her and left her in that place. There was enough gasoline around her to have burnt her to a crisp." It was plain to see that Sophia was scared. In a trembling voice she said, "But Stephen trusted you. He treated you like a son!" Just then a man's voice came out from the room behind, "I've given the girl the injection. She's not going to be waking up for a while." As he came out of the room Gary ducked outside closing the open door. But he was a bit too loud. The noise of the door closing caught everybody's attention. The second man immediately drew out a gun and ran to the door, throwing it open. He said loud and clear for Gary who was hiding behind some bushes, to hear, "Whoever is out there better show your self right now, or the lady's dead." The first man had caught hold of Sophia and his gun was poised ready to fire through her head. Gary had no choice but to come out into the open. The man at the door turned to the first man, addressing him as Gregory, asking him "What do we do with this fellow here now? pointing to Gary.

He could hear Sophia screaming, or at least trying to scream. The man who was holding her was keeping his hand over her mouth so all that came out were some weird noises. Suddenly there was a clattering noise from somewhere in the back, loud enough to distract both Gregory and his accomplice. Gary saw his chance. He ran forward and slammed into the accomplice, head first. Before the other had realized what was going on, Gary had snatched the gun from his hand and thrown it out the open door. But the man wasn't ready to give up just yet. He was bigger than Gary, and using all his considerable force, he managed to overthrow him. He knocked Gary to the floor just as he started to rise up. Gary hit the floor, landing on his right side, crushing his already injured arm. He screamed in agony just as the man landed a kick on his stomach. He realized that Gary's right arm was injured from the way he was clutching it. With a vicious yell he twisted Gary's arm behind his back till Gary was in so much pain that he could no longer struggle.

Marissa was worried. She didn't know whether this Sophia was really capable of cold-blooded murder, but if she was, Gary could be in danger. She had tried to stop Gary from going to the hospital, urged him to call the authorities but he had not listened. She was tired of waiting. It was almost 3 hours since he had left and she was getting very concerned. Just then the cat jumped up on her lap. As she petted it, stroking the warm fur, she heard something. Gunshots and someone yelling, someone who sounded just like Gary. She jumped up from the stool she had been sitting on and called out Gary's name. But the only other person in the room was a waitress who was cleaning the bar. She was the one who answered, "Uh...Miss. Clark, Mr. Hobson isn't here. There is no one here other than the two of us." When Marissa asked her if she had heard any noises, the girl replied that she hadn't heard anything. That was when Marissa decided that she had heard something because the cat had wanted her to. She asked the girl to look up the Kingston's phone number in the yellow pages and within a few minutes had called up at Stephen Kingston's office. The receptionist who took the call refused to put her through to Mr. Kingston till Marissa told her that it was a matter of life and death and that it concerned his grand daughter. It was apparent from her tone of voice that she didn't believe Marissa, but she must have changed her mind for she put Marissa on hold and after a minute or two put her through to Mr. Kingston himself. Before he could get in a word, Marissa quickly told him that she knew that his grand daughter was going to be killed at her own home. He was astonished to hear this but his instincts told him to believe this woman he didn't even know. He immediately thanked her and told her that he would enquire into the matter without delay and hung up. Before Marissa had even put the receiver down, Kingston had already called up the hospital. When he found out that Julianna was indeed missing, he blew his top. It was for this very reason that the doctor had not informed Mr. Kingston. They had hoped to find her and bring her back before he found out anything. Stephen immediately called up a friend of his in the police force and they were on their way to Sophia's home.

The man had turned Gary over on his stomach and was about to tie his hands behind his back with some rope when Gary noticed a table behind the man's back. He managed to kick the table and the huge ornamental vase on the top toppled over and fell right on top of the fellow's head. For a second he seemed stunned, and with a groan fell down on top of Gary like a sack of potatoes.

Just then they heard sirens outside. Gary somehow managed to push off the unconscious man but by then Gregory had rushed to the window to look outside and seen the police cars drawing up outside the house. They heard someone speaking through a loud speaker, "This is the police. Surrender yourself. You have been surrounded." At that moment, Gregory lost it. He put the gun to Sophia's forehead. Grabbing her, he pushed her in front of him and threw open the door and shouted out, "I want everyone out of here within five minutes or else she dies." He seemed to have forgotten Gary lying on the floor in front of him, or thought that he posed no harm especially with a broken arm.

From the silence outside came a voice, "Gregory? Is that you?" For a second he looked stunned before a mask of anger replaced it. "Yes _boss, _it's me!" Then Stephen Kingston's voice came from outside, "What are you doing? Let go of Sophia at once!" But the only response that elicited from Gregory was a laugh. "You are in no position to make demands right now, don't you think?"

At that moment Sophia took a chance and grasped the hand he was holding at her forehead. Before he could react she put all her force into the blow she landed in the pit of his stomach. But he managed to throw her off and she hit the wall, reeling. Gary saw his opening and got up from where he had been lying and jumped on Gregory managing to stop him from shooting Sophia. The police instantly ran inside and caught Gregory before he hit Gary again. They handcuffed him and took him away screaming about why he had done it.

Sophia had gotten up from the floor, wiping a small blood trickle from her forehead and helped Gary up, making him wince as she pulled on his now broken right arm. Paramedics surrounded him and lifted him up onto a waiting stretcher. Behind him Stephen Kingston hugged his daughter-in-law and begged for forgiveness. As Gary was carried into the ambulance, he came to thank him once again. The last thing that Gary saw before the doors were closed was his cat, sitting on the pavement, watching him. He knew it was all right now. Julianna had only been given a sleeping medicine; they had planned to kill her later, and Sophia too was safe.

Marissa had come to the hospital as soon as she had received the phone call. She sat on the chair next to Gary's bed as he told her what had happened. She told him later what she had done. "But why would Stephen Kingston's manager want to murder Julianna or Sophia? She asked him in surprise when he had told her. Gary explained what Gregory had been screaming when he was handcuffed and taken away by the police. "He expected to be promoted to vice-president when Fredrick died. And even be included, as a major beneficiary in his will. But Stephen did nothing of that sort. In fact he was trying to get custody of Julie as she was his only granddaughter and put most of his wealth in a trust fund for her. He actually discussed all his plans with Gregory, who felt cheated and that's why he decided to take revenge, and get rich all at the same time. He was the one who kidnapped Julianna and left her to die today morning. He thought that when there was no heir left for the Kingston fortune Stephen would bequeath it all to him. When his plan backfired, he decided to use Stephen's hatred against Sophia to his advantage. He had a dark haired woman steal Julie from the hospital, only after she had mentioned to someone that she was her mother. He was planning to murder both of them and make it look like Sophia had done it, killed her daughter and then killed herself in regret. The injection he had his accomplice give to Julie only put her to sleep, because when he killed her, he wanted it to be as close to Sophia's time of death as possible." Afetr a little pause, he asked in a questioning voice, "But I don't understand how Stephen knew to bring the police along with him." Marissa then told Gary about what she had heard and what she had done. Stephen and Sophia entered Gary's room just in time to hear her say that she had called Mr. Kingston at his office. Both of them thanked Gary and Marissa profusely and in front of them Stephen apologized to Sophia for all that he had held against her. For only now had he found out that Gregory had been the cause of the misunderstandings between Sophia and Fredrick.

Julianna lay in bed, a little smile on her face. She didn't know what had been going on today, and she felt so sleepy and tired the whole time that she couldn't remember anything. But when she woke up just now, she had seen her mommy and grandfather hug each other and smile. And she knew that even though her daddy was gone, they were going to be happy.


End file.
